A system for mining material in a seam under an overburden layer using a geological model map of a geological formation, including a desired drilling end point at a predefined position relative to a geological boundary between the overburden layer and seam. A drill controller controls operation of a drill drilling a blast hole. A sensor pack senses, while drilling the blast hole, blast hole drilling operation parameters; and feeds the sensed parameters in real time to the drill controller. A data storage module stores a geological model of the geological formation and sensed parameters data. A processor module generates a geological model map including the desired drilling end point and locates the drill bit position relative to the geological boundary and such end point. The drill controller drills to the desired drilling end point and causes the drill to stop drilling upon reaching such end point.

A system for mining material in a seam under an overburden layer using a geological model map of a geological formation, including a desired drilling end point at a predefined position relative to a geological boundary between the overburden layer and seam. A drill controller controls operation of a drill drilling a blast hole. A sensor pack senses, while drilling the blast hole, blast hole drilling operation parameters; and feeds the sensed parameters in real time to the drill controller. A data storage module stores a geological model of the geological formation and sensed parameters data. A processor module generates a geological model map including the desired drilling end point and locates the drill bit position relative to the geological boundary and such end point. The drill controller drills to the desired drilling end point and causes the drill to stop drilling upon reaching such end point.

Sensors may be located remotely from a rig of a well. The sensors may operate independently of the rig, and generate remote sensor information that characterizes operating characteristics of the well independent of the rig. The operation of the well may be analyzed based on the remote sensor information.

Systems and methods for producing controlled vibrations within a borehole. In one example, the system includes a movement mechanism and a controller. The movement mechanism is configured to enable translational movement of a first surface relative to a second surface to allow the first surface to impact the second surface to produce a plurality of beats. The frequency and amplitude of the beats may be selectively controlled by suppressing or dampening the beats. The controller is configured to selectively control an amplitude or frequency of the beats to encode information therein, where the amplitude of a beat may be selectively controlled by dampening or suppressing the impact of the first surface and the second surface.

Systems and methods for producing controlled vibrations within a borehole. In one example, the system includes a movement mechanism and a controller. The movement mechanism is configured to enable translational movement of a first surface relative to a second surface to allow the first surface to impact the second surface to produce a plurality of beats. The frequency and amplitude of the beats may be selectively controlled by suppressing or dampening the beats. The controller is configured to selectively control an amplitude or frequency of the beats to encode information therein, where the amplitude of a beat may be selectively controlled by dampening or suppressing the impact of the first surface and the second surface.

Systems and methods for determining shear failure of a rock formation are disclosed. The method includes receiving, by a processor, a plurality of parameters related to physical properties of the rock formation, applying the plurality of parameters to a predetermined failure criterion, and determining shear failure of the rock formation based on the failure criterion. In some embodiments the failure criterion is a modified Hoek-Brown failure criterion that takes into consideration an intermediate principal stress, and the difference between normal stresses and an average confining stress.

A method of fault detection and recovery in a tubing string located in a hydrocarbon well, a method of fault protection in a tubing string located in a hydrocarbon well, and an apparatus and system for same. In one aspect, there is provided a method of fault detection and recovery in a tubing string located in a hydrocarbon well, the tubing string having a plurality of valves, each valve having a control unit, each control unit being connected in series to a power-line providing power and communication, each of the control units being independently controllable. The method comprises: detecting a short circuit, fault or failure in one of the control units of the tubing string via an output of the power-line; causing individual control units to be selectively isolated from the power-line via a circuit interrupting device; and determining one or more control unit associated with the short circuit, fault or failure via the output of the power-line while individual control units are selectively isolated from the power-line.

A tool for use in well tubing is provided. The tool substantially spans a diameter of well tubing. Alternatively or in addition the tool extends longitudinally in well tubing and has radially adjacent batteries. A method of using the tool in well tubing is further provided. The method comprises transferring a signal from the tool to another tool.

Systems and methods for damping vibrations of downhole systems are described. The systems include a downhole component configured to be disposed downhole and a shock-damping system at least one of on or in the downhole component, the shock-damping system configured to reduce torsional oscillations of the downhole component by imparting a selected shock to the downhole component. The selected shock is selected to generate damping of the torsional oscillations of the downhole system.

A method may include calculating a first set of hash values for a set of well log channels, extracting a well log channel snippet from an unknown well log channel, calculating a second set of hash values for the well log channel snippet, identifying, for the unknown well log channel, a matching well log channel by searching the first set of hash values with the second set of hash values, and storing, for the unknown well log channel, a channel context corresponding to the matching well log channel.